Good finish!

According to the BBC Sport website, Dave Jones believes that Cardiff are heading for a top 6 place. Well, as I said in my previous post, this is quite possible as there are so many teams of equal ability in the Champonship this season. The team are reaching the end of 2007 in the top half of the table (just), and are in good form at present.

However, before we get too carried away lets remember that Saturday's win was against Preston, who IMHO are one of the 2 worst teams to come to Ninian Park this year. Also, the form of Joe Ledley is starting to attract Premiership scouts. I fear we may lose him in the transfer window as there are any number of Premiership teams willing to offer stupid money to try to protect their status. Peter Ridsdale has quite openly said that every player is for sale at the right price. My guess is the right price for Joe Ledley is around £5m, and someone in the Premiership could be desperate enough to offer it.

However, on the positive side, it was another succesful trip to the Northwest. After a first win in many years in Blackpool before Christmas, we follow it up with the first win since 1986 at Preston. Roger Johnson, who looks a better buy every day, scored another of his powerful headers and Joe Ledley put away a good finish after a storming run.

Next game Plymouth - the team in 6th place in the table, five points above us at present. A win would put us 2 points behind them. Why not dream a litle of the playoffs in May?

Best of the Rest?

Nearly got revenge for the defeat earlier in the season - except the Watford equaliser came in the 5th minute of stoppage time when only 3 minutes had been called! Jobi McAnuff scored the equaliser - how often do former players do that? The Wales on Sunday and South Wales Echo were both very positive over the performance - the team seems to have lost some of the anxiety of recent weeks.

There is no reason not to believe at this point that Cardiff cannot be a top 6 team. This is not so much about the ability of Cardiff, but the fact that there is so little difference between top and bottom in this division. There are no outstanding teams showing themselves at present, and Cardiff are as good as most of the rest.

A win against Preston would really give them a boost, although their form at Deepdale over recent years has not been good.

Don't the games come thick and fast at this time of year!

Keeping it clean.

RAVE: A 1-0 win, but who cares? Young Kaspar kept another clean sheet, apparently the fourth since he came to play for us. Its a shame that Manchester City want him back in January but he will be fondly remembered at Ninian Park. I find it hard to believe that Sven considers Joe Hart to be a better keeper but I suppose we have to bow to his experience!

It was also the first game without Steve Thompson, as he is beginning a 3 match ban following the decision of Premiership referee Uriah Rennie in Bristol. However, the team played well and managed without him. One good thing to come out of this year's injury problems is a number of striker combinations who are used to playing with each other. For this game it was Parry and JFH - the pace of Parry continues to bother defences. It would be nice if we could find a big mobile striker such as Rowan Vine in the transfer window but I suspect finances will be too tight.

The half way point in the season - 14th in the table. A little disappointing following the pre-season enthusiasm but a lot better than was expected after the home game against Charlton!

Premiership - you're having a laugh!

RANT: Why do they have to send Premiership referees down to the lower levels? Do they think they are doing us a favour? Don't make me laugh. They are no better than their championship counterparts and can spoil games by their interpretation of the rules. This game was destroyed as a contest by Uriah Rennie (see pic) sending off Steve Thompson in the 15th minute, for what should have been a yellow card at most.

The goalkeeper was being deliberately provocative by shielding the ball out of play. Is it my imagination or is shielding the ball out of play like that a comparatively new phenomena. I can't help feeling that if this had been tried back in the sixties or seventies then someone like Stan bowles or Francis Lee (amongst others) would have kicked the goalkeeper's a__e half way up the stand?

A good effort by the team by all accounts despite being a player short for 75 minutes. Thompson has subsequently lost his appeal (why do these things have to be decided by the Welsh FA?) and is now missing for 3 games from Saturday. He has improved considerably over the last few games so lets hope his replacement can take up where he left off.

'Ere we go! 'Ere we go! Two in a row!

RAVE: Cracking goal from Steve Thompson - 3 goals in 4 games, and his fourth goal of the season. We brought in 3 new strikers in the summer and it turns out we had what we needed all along! Perhaps a bit early to get carried away, but he has been getting some goals to reward his hard work and looks a good player at present. His partnership with JFH is looking good, with JFH increasing in confidence all the time. Long may it continue!

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: Dave Jones says we won ugly. Good. I think. On balance I would rather win ugly than lose in a beautiful manner!

It was the first time we had won at Blackpool for over 30 years. Lets hope we can do a similar job against Bristol City on Saturday - another venue that we haven't had much success at over the years.

4-some!

Will the real Cardiff City please stand up? Could this really be the same team which had caused such deep depression just 4 days previously?

RAVE: Well, who knows which is the real Cardiff City, but this wasn't the same team as played Charlton. Dave Jones really put his job on the line by listening to the press (and the fans) by bringing in McNaughton for Capaldi and moving Ledley in to central midfield with McPhail (although some felt it should have been Rae). This meant that Whittingham was to start on the wide left for the first time this season. Less controversial was JFH back for McClean. But Jones also had the cojones to drop Purse and bring in Johnson. A defeat in this game after these changes and he would have had to go.

RAVE: The game. Although the opposition was weak, the performance was convincing and you could see the confidence coming back to the team. Didn't panc when they went behind to a sloppy goal against the run of play and totally outplayed them in the second half. The Colchester defence was very poor and I would be concerned if I was a Colchester supporter. Great save from Kaspar at 1-1 and it was one way traffic from then.

RAVE: Peter Whittingham - a great game back and my man of match.

LET BATTLE COMMENCE !

The relegation battle, that is. A season that started with high hopes of possibly a top six spot has already dissolved into a relegation battle by December. Last night they were just bad bad bad. I have rarely left a game feeling so depressed. Most of the crowd were too miserable to boo. We were awful and just not in the same class as Charlton. Not that Charlton were that good but we were terrible.Dave Jones will have to work miracles to pick this team up for Saturday. And after the good performances of the last week. Gloom. :-(

Just to make things more worrying, there is the threat of administration hanging over the club. If the court case is not heard next week then the club could run out of money. This seems rather farcical and shows the worst excesses of the legal system if this is allowed to happen. £20,000 a day in legal fees? For what is an open and shut case (if Mr Ridsdale is to be believed). I'm in the wrong game.

Even Terry Phillips in the South Wales Echo couldn't rate any body at more than 5 out of 10 for last night. Two games now against teams on the same number of points as us. Crucial relgation 6 pointers already! I hope they pick up their form but I have a nasty feeling its going to get worse before it gets better. Jones' days are numbered, again. 2 defeats and he's out. Gloom.gloom.

First goal on radio!

RAVE: I was actually listening to Radio Wales when Roger Johnson scored the equaliser. This is the first goal I have heard "live" this season. I even listened to the Sheffield United match and missed all 3 Cardiff goals but heard all 3 of the opposition! Lets hope I've started a new trend for the rest of the season.

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: (but probably a rave): Well - the score on Saturday. There's something about a late equaliser that gives you confidence for the next match. The Radio Wales commentators said that this was one of city's best performances of the season so to have come away with nothing would have been an injustice. Well, a late equaliser after some of the games this season was very welcome - perhaps we are starting to make our own luck and some of the good performances will be rewarded and the bad ones not punished!

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: Kaspar Schmeicel -penalty save then missed cross for second goal. Lets hope he learns from it - he owes us nothing, that's for sure!

Charlton tonight - lets keep up the pressure on a team out of form and do ourselves some good at the same time!

Great Dane!

Watched the game on SKY. A good first half performance when we probably edged it but definitely under pressure in the second half and it was a good hard earned point by the end of the game. One or two of the lucky bounces went our way which is overdue.

RAVE: Kaspar Schmeicel's first half save - absolutely stunning and virtually earned him the man of the match accolade with one moment of inspiration! He definitely kept them in the game after halftime.

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: Mr Ridsdale says that he has been exonerated over his support for Dave Jones and that the last 2 performances have shown that the players are firmly behind their manager. I'm not so sure that another loss or two wouldn't put the pressure back on again but there can be no complaints about the commitment of the players.

Better!

RAVE: A one-nil win. The win is particularly welcome and a clean sheet as well! A good hard working performance and they never really looked like losing the game during the last quarter of an hour. Impressive the way they defended in the Ipswich half as well as our own.

RAVE: A cracking goal from Parry.

Lets hope for another good performance at Leicester tomorrow night - a second win now could really kick-start the season.

Vote of confidence? Now the pressure's really on!

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: Well, the board have backed Dave Jones but said that he will be judged by results. In my humble opinion he has until December 8th to turn it around - there are 5 games between 24th november and the 8th of December and I think we will need to win at least 3 of them and not lose the other 2 if he is to keep his job. If they lose to Ipswich on the 24th and then to Leicester on SKY 2 days later then he will be gone straight away.

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: Is Joe Ledley as good as the Wales on Sunday and Echo make out? He had a great game against Burnley but I thought the were a bit over the top about his performance against Palace. I notice he got high ratings again on Saturday but I don't know whether to trust their opinion.


RAVE: Kaspar Schmeicel. Please Mr Ericsonn, can we keep him for the rest of the season?

" I say Mr Referee, were you born out of wedlock?"

RANT: The referee. I'm not one to complain about incompetent referrees as long as they are equally incompetent to both teams. They have to do a difficult job and can't do it right all the time. But this one was more incompetent to us than them and it probably cost us the win. We've been having enough problems recently without these sort of things going agains us.
Now I can't really comment on the penalty against us as I was in the Gents at the time, but there was suficient idignation amongst the crowd to suggest that it was a questionable decision. I will see if the clip on Virgin media shows anything and will amend the blog if necessary.

RANT: Robbie Fowler.Not good enough and didn't look as if he was interested. The team looked more balanced and dangerous after Thompson came on and I think the time has come to try a different combination from the Fowler/JFH combination up front.

RAVE: Kaspar Schmeicel. I can't believe Man City have a better keeper than him. I f we get a chance to sign him for the rest of the season then we should grab it with both hands.

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: I suspect Dave Jones will be under severe pressure for his job if they lose at Charlton today.

Anyone but Man Utd!

RAVE: Good performance against Liverpool but got knocked out of the competition. Rumour has it that the club pockets around £400,000 aswell but this appears a bit unlikely to me. My views on cup competions have already been made clear in this blog and generally speaking I'm glad we're out - now for the league! Can't complain about being beaten by a winner from Steven Gerrard!

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: Its weird having a weekend without a game when everyone else is playing. Caught some of the Arsenal-Man Utd game earlier - nice to see the Gunners pull back a late goal (Anyone but Man Utd!). Some of the results went against us today and some of the teams below us appear to be hitting form - the match against Palace on Tuesday takes on extra significance as a potential relegation battle already. Mind you, they have just appointed a new manager which is not always the best time to play a struggling team. Mind you, we're a struggling team at the moment!

Team don't win while I'm away - or when I get back!

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE:

Been away in Florida for the family hols and only had to miss 2 games as a result of the international break. First time I've followed games by text message! (Many Thanks to Jayne Bell!).

Of course, apart from that I only really knew the scores. The Magic Kingdom was a little more magic while we were leading 2-1 against Wolves but alas it was not to be.

Press putting lots of pressure on Dave Jones but I'm still not panicking yet. However, only 3 league wins from the last 20 games does not make good reading - Martin Jol had a better record than that and he was shown the door this week.

Be interesting to see what the local papers make of it again - the radio commentary suggested that they played well again today, especially in the second half, but still didn't manage a win. Same old, same old.

At last - and a good one too!

RAVE: At last a home Championship win! A good all round team performance. Not the same flowing football of recent games apparently but this time a win! We must have been taking Premiership lessons in time wasting as we completely shut them out for the last 5 minutes and the 4 minutes of injury time. Takes us nicely into the international break - also into the family holiday to Florida.

RAVE: Joe Ledley. The best game I have seen him play ever. I hope the team are doing well by the January transfer window or we might lose him. Nice to see Darren Purse playing 3 quareters of the game today aswell.

How many times can you have deja vu ?

RANT:Listened on the radio tonight - actually they did better when I wasn't listening - all 3 Blades goals were scored when I was listening and all 3 city goals were scored when I was doing something else!

2 goals conceded in the last 6 minutes. Will we never hold on to a lead? Will we ever keep a clean sheet? The only time this year was when we played QPR and look how bad they have been!

and now we have a home game coming up on Saturday. Scared? Me too! Not losing but not winning. The radio suggested we were much the better team and yet we only drew. Lets go back to not playing well and winning shall we?

AAAAGGGHHH!!!

This week Yorkshire - soon to be Liverpool!

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: Well - the score of 1-1. A good result but disappointing that they couldn't have held on for the last 15 mins. Great goal from JFH but gave away another sloppy late goal. Another trip to Yorkshire on Tuesday to play the Blades - a win there would give the team so much more confidence.

RAVE: Drawn in the Carling Cup at Liverpool. Surely it will be on SKY? A good draw (although I don't really approve of cup competitons!) and a great night for Robbie Fowler. A bit of a pay day for the club and a good chance to get knocked out of the competition. Perfect!

The score is what?!!!

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: OK - I'm not a big fan of cup football of any kind and the league cup is a bit irrelevant in the modern game in my opinion. However, this may just be the confidence boost the team needs. I understand West Brom did not have their strongest team out but 4-0 up after 28 minutes will do this team the world of good after recent results.

When I saw the score on Sky Sports I had to check on BBC teletext to make sure it was right!

Barnsley away on Saturday - the game can't come soon enough methinks. Lets hope we don't wear black!

A game of two doubles.

RAVE: Robbie Fowler - you could see his confidence grow after the first goal and even more after the second. Now starting to look the class player of old. JFH keeps on playing well. If the two of them get exactly on the same wavelength they could be very good.

RAVE: (sort of). Oakes replacing Turnbull in goal. I don't like to say I told you so, but see previous post concerning the dodgy keeper!

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: The game against Preston. Team played well - didn't panic when Preston equalised. Preston poorest team in the league this year - I'd be worried if they were my team. But who could have planned for the fullback to score 2 goals from 20+ yards. Keep playing like this and we will do well this season.

Getting better, but........

RANT: The result. It was a good performance, we were the better team. So how come we lost?
Well, the keeper looks dodgy - Turnbull now directly responsible for 3 of the 7 league goals we have conceded this season (should have done better with cross for 1st goal).
Also, we badly need a pair of recognised centre halves - the sooner we get Purse and/or Loovens back the better. Johnson deserves a rave and McNaughton played well tonight but this needs to only be a short term measure or the season will quickly be over.

RAVE: Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. Played well. Tried very hard. Scored classic goal. May ultimately be more useful than Fowler, who showed nice touches tonight without being spectacular.

mini-rant: 12.45 kick off on Saturday. I bet the opposition wear black just to annoy me!

Men in Black.

RAVE: Great comeback - nice to see a bit of spirit in the team. We could easily have won the game after giving away two careless goals. Played some great football in the second half.

Robbie Fowler starting to look sharp. JFH needs better service and more passes to feet but you couldn't complain about the amount of effort. Lets hope we can carry on this Wednesday against Watford.

RAVE: Steve Thompson.Roy of the Rovers stuff! The forgotten man comes on to score the equaliser. Very pleased for him - hope this inspires him to score more. Of course, he scored 2 against Plymouth nat the New Year so we shouldn't be that surprised.

RANT: 5.20pm kick off. Yes, the SKY money is great but 5.20pm ? What sort of a time is that to kick off. What next? Thursday lunchtime?

RANT: Teams that have changed colours of black. Yes, I know we do but I don't like it. Only referees should wear black. Trying to watch a game on TV with one team in dark green and one in black is not easy. Our regular blue would have provided a better contrast. Change colours when both teams wear the same, not just to sell more kits.

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: 7 points from 5 games - now for some home points please!

Bluebirds Stun Canaries!

Norwich City 1 Cardiff City 2

RAVE: Great win. Ironically Dave Jones thinks that this was our worst performance of the season but the best result! We need another result like this to cancel out 2 good home performances from which we got nothing!

Also - the streak is ended - the city won their first league game after going behind for the first time since 9th August 2005 (Leeds at Ninian Park - won 2-1). Lets hope the other streak of not having lost a game in which we have gone ahead, which dates back to the October 1st 2005 (Luton lost 2-1) continues a while longer.

RANT: International football - do we need it? Am I the only one who thinks that international football gets in the way of the real thing? If you put together the best 10 teams in the world, how many of them would be international teams? Brazil, Italy maybe, but not England. However, you would probably include AC Milan, Real Madrid, Barclona, Manchester United (though I hate to say it), and probably the top 2 or 3 teams in most of the major European countries - perhaps one or two from South America aswell.

Money and air travel has changed the world of football forever and I see international football becoming less and less relevant.

30 Grand a week and no goals yet!

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE:

Well at least it was a home win and we did manage it within 90 minutes (just) (and they were down to 10 men).

Neither Fowler or Hasselbaink scored but at least they both played a complete game and appeared to have played well. The ECHO tonight says the JFH is likely to be fit to face Norwich on Saturday.

More worrying is the injury to Purse. With Loovens not 100% and McNaughton out for 6 weeks it leaves us very short of central defenders. Apparently Dave Jones is frantically trying to sign someone before the transfer deadline tomorrow night, but it is a bit tricky with so much going on at the deadline - you could easily end up paying over the odds or being sold a pup.

RANT: The Transfer Window! Why not make it before the season starts? Yes, I know why - international seasons etc but it is still a difficult time.

Its deja vu already!

Cardiff 0 Coventry 1. It was almost a carbon copy of the Stoke game - Cardiff play well, fail to score, other team scores when defence goes to sleep for 10 seconds, Cardiff lose confidence, then get late dubious penalty AND MISS IT AGAIN!!!

They will play worse than this and still win.

RAVE: If we play like we did on Saturday, then we will do well this season, especially if Fowler and Hasselbaink play regularly up front.

RANT: Psychology input needed - too many heads drop just after a goal is scored and they do not pick themselves up quickly enough. Everybody gives away goals - GET OVER IT! The last time that the City came from behind to win a league game was August 9th 2005 against Leeds - this is not good enough.

RAVE: A new tactic in the last 10 minutes on Saturday - Dave Jones switched them to a 3-4-3. Alright, I know this meant sending Roger Johnson up front but it nearly paid off with the penalty.

Tonight's Carling Cup game should feature Fowler and Hasselbaink for part of the game - lets hope Jones means this and it is not just a ploy to get more people through the gate. The side needs a lift after losing two home league games so lets hope it goes well before the journey to norwich on Saturday.

Here's to the first of many!

RAVE - QPR 0 Cardiff 2

The first win if the season - always good to get that. Not sure if QPR are going to be up to much this year. I understand that they may be having a new owner soon so perhaps now is the best time to play them. They seem to never have forgiven us for beating them in the playoff final 4 years ago!

Nice to see Maclean and Parry score - it will be interesting to see which of them will be playing next week. I can't see both Fowler and Hasselbaink starting together on the same day, although it is potentially an exciting combination.

RAVE - Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink

Always been one of my favourite players and has a high goal to game ratio. I thought a few weeks ago that he could be a useful acquisition for a year or two, when I first heard that Charlton had released him. £15,000 a week - lets hope he does better than Kevin Campbell.

Should be a big crowd for the Coventry game next Saturday. (25th August)

Same old same old .......

NEITHER RANT OR RAVE:
Last night's gme at least produced a win. I didn't go but the Echo seems to suggest that Feeney and Maclean played well without ever threatening to score - nothing new there.

NEITHER RANT OR RAVE:
Off the field the headlines there are concerning the club owing somebody £31 million. Sam Hammam lurks in the background of this, although I suspect that a few fingers will be pointed at Ridsdale's track record at Leeds. Mind you, he was very convincing on the Radio Wales interview at teatime.

Who's that going over the hill....?

Well, it was bound to happen, wasn't it. Just as we drew a blank against a Stoke side who were no better than we were, the news filters through that "Chops" has scored the winner for Sunderland. We wish him no animosity, but a part of me and many other fans wish we had him and not Robbie Fowler.



What was more worrying yesterday was the obvious lack of firepower - we are going to need a target man of some ability to work with Fowler and/or Maclean or which ever other striker plays. Dave Jones must realise that the cost of players has risen all round, and he is going to have to bite the bullet and pay more than he wants to get someone in. £2.5 million for Rowan Vine? Looks ok to me. £5million for Kenwyn Jones? Maybe a little overpriced but not by much.



Otherwise a fair performance yesterday. I would like to have seen Rae get stuck in a bit more and a little more passing through the middle rather than aerial balls to the strikers, but nothing to panic about yet.



Give the reserves a cheer against Brighton for me on Tuesday - the sooner we get knocked out of the cup competitons the better (But that's another story).

Cardiff City - how will the Bluebirds fare in the 2007-08 season ?

Playoffs this year?